Success with consumer finance

2018-12-18T00:00:00+00:002019-03-21T16:02:54+00:00Deko

Every merchant wants to get the most from retail finance. On the next few pages are 12 fundamentals to get you off to the best start. We’ll also show you the resources available to help you achieve your full potential with financing. 59% of customers would have bought elsewhere if finance wasn’t available, so it’s worth following these principles to help you maximise your sales.

Offer across sales channels

There is no extra cost for our omni-channel solution so never miss an opportunity to convert customers either online, in store, via mobile or on the telephone. Our application ensures a consistent and simple user journey whichever channel your customers choose to buy from.

PROMOTE FINANCE EARLY AND AT THE POINT OF SALE

Make sure customers know you offer finance. Promoting finance in the right place will attract customers and people will spend more if they know they can spread the cost. Our merchants have seen average order value increase by 40% on finance orders.

EMPOWER CUSTOMERS

Educate your customers. Inform them of the options available, let them check their potential repayments with a calculator, explain the simple process to apply and help them understand finance is an alternative payment option that will remove any barriers at checkout.

REPORT ON FINANCE APPLICATIONS

Monitor and track the performance of your solution and promotional activities to inform your strategy for the future.

Use every sales channel

1. INTEGRATE ONLINE

Online is the easiest way to offer finance. Setup is quick and easy and once you’re up and running there’s nothing else to do. Download our 7 tips to integrating online as a starting point or speak to us if you need advice. We also have partners who can help integrate with your ecommerce platform. One of our merchants saw an increase in revenue of 400% in just one month through integrating online.

2. OPTIMISE FOR MOBILE

Bingo – this is already done if you’ve integrated online because our application form is built mobile-first. Cool fact – 65% of our applications come from mobile so you won’t miss a sale from this channel.

3. OFFER IN-STORE

Our platform is easy for staff to use. There’s an inbuilt calculator so they can show customers the options available with the repayment terms broken down. There’s also a video to explain the facts to the customer and staff compliance training too.

4. FINANCE ON THE PHONE

Just as easy as in-store applications, but with scripts instead of visuals and audio. Staff can take the customer through the entire process and complete the sale over the phone. Enable phone applications in BackOffice.

Promote finance early in the buying journey

Customers will behave differently if they know finance is available from the outset. They choose to upgrade, or buy additional goods or services so average order values will increase and customers are more likely to choose you over the competition.

Make sure your customers are aware that you offer finance with digital banners online and/or point of sale materials in-store.

5. ADD TO YOUR HOMEPAGE

Use our digital banners or design your own. Customers can click through to your finance page for more info.

6. PROMOTE IN YOUR WINDOW

Order some window stickers so passing customers know you offer finance.

Promote at point of sale

Make sure customers know you offer finance on the products they’re considering. They’ll often choose to upgrade, add items or take extra services if they know they can spread the cost. Use our digital and physical point of sale materials (details at docs.dekopay.com) to make sure they’re aware of your finance offer as they move through the purchase funnel.

7. PROMOTE ON YOUR PRODUCT PAGE

8. ADD OPTION AT CHECKOUT

9. ADD TO YOUR PAYMENT OPTIONS LIST

10. ADD A WEBSITE FINANCE PAGE

A good finance page explains all the details of your finance offer and how to apply. It lets customers know about selecting finance as a payment method at checkout, the repayment terms, how the order is fulfilled as well as details of the lender and legal information regarding their consumer rights. Give customers the knowledge to make an informed decision; you can then direct them back to your product page to start shopping. We’ve created a finance page template so you just need to review, edit, copy and paste this into your own website.

11. BUILD A FINANCE CALCULATOR

Adding a finance calculator to your website means customers can calculate any repayment costs for themselves. This lets them check affordability and they can choose the right option for them. We provide a Javascript snippet, based on your finance options and lender policy, that makes it easy for you to build into your site.

The calculator is the most powerful tool to empower and reassure customers about their finance decision throughout their shopping experience. Adding it in 3 different places means you should never miss an opportunity to convert.

Talk to your account manager if you would like to integrate a calculator on any page of your website.

The finance calculator should be displayed in three key places:

The finance page – Customers can input their own goods value, choose a deposit amount and see what the repayments and other key factors will be.

Individual product pages – Here the calculator will pre-populate the cost of the item to display the repayment breakdown when customers choose which finance option they prefer i.e. term length or specific APRs.

At checkout – If customers have multiple items in their basket they can check the repayment options on the total cost of goods too.

12. SCHEDULE REPORTS

Track and monitor your finance performance to see the impact it’s having on your business. Every merchant has access to BackOffice where you can run reports to compare and contrast activity. You can track your finance activity over time and make comparisons on day, weekly, monthly or annual performance.

Some things to monitor are:

Application volume

Revenue from finance

Application status’

Sales channel performance

For instance, if you run a promotional email or social campaign to your database of customers you can assess the impact if you see application volumes increase.

If you integrate the finance calculator at checkout you should see an increase in average order value. If you add different finance options to your mix (offering a higher APR or by increasing the maximum deposit) what impact does this have on acceptance rates?

Your account manager will be analysing your performance over time and provide active suggestions, but we’ve given you the tools in BackOffice to get started from day one.